City to be 'as aggressive as possible' opening up during 2nd COVID-19 summer, official says

As Hamilton prepares for its second summer of the COVID-19 pandemic, Paul Johnson, the director of the city's emergency operations centre, says they're planning to be "as aggressive as possible." 

Johnson says the city wants to open as many resources as possible once the provincial stay-at-home order is lifted. 

"Our goal is to be as aggressive as possible to open as many things as is allowed," he said in a board of health meeting Monday.

"And that's one of the reasons that we are preparing for a very large scale amount of activities in our communities toward the summer."

Last summer, Johnson said the city was more restrictive "because we knew so little about this virus" and no vaccines were available.

"This summer it's a little bit different," he said, noting it still depends on provincial or local orders. "It's how do we push to the absolute maximums of safety both for our staff who work in them and the children and the families who will be accessing them."

Dr. Elizabeth Richardson, the city's medical officer of health, said she's heard there's going to be a "gradual opening up" by the province. While public health doesn't have specific actions planned, she said, changes impacting kids will be the priority. 

"We need [kids] to receive the benefits of opening up first," she said. 

On Sunday, Premier Doug Ford said that summer camps would be able to run this summer, but didn't share details.

While there's "no doubt" that regulations will be in place, Johnson said, there seems to be a push for day camps. Registration for city camps has already started. 

"Who knows how much of their school year they'll have left, but let's make this a great summer for kids," he said. 

In a COVID-19 media briefing on Monday, Johnson said the province will drive when businesses and retail can open up. 

"We'll be ready," said Johnson, noting the city will have aspects like the patio program in place when possible. 

Mayor Fred Eisenberger pointed to his economic task force, with recommended actions "ready to go again" for businesses after the shutdown. 

"Some immediate assistance is available that will hopefully kick start, when we're able, to get more businesses up and running," he said. 

City doesn't expect to reach red zone by end of June

But despite hopes for more leniency, Richardson said Scarsin Forecasting modelling shows Hamilton would still fall in the "grey -lockdown" zone of the province colour-coded framework at the end of June. 

While case activity is trending down from the peak of wave three, she said, that decline is a slow one. 

"We do need to continue to assume that the virus is out there throughout our city," she said.

There were 91 new cases in Hamilton reported on Monday, bringing the city's overall total during the pandemic to 19,418 cases. 

Stephanie Hughes, an epidemiologist with the city, says the decline is recently new, dating back to just last week. She said 9,170 of the city's reported COVID-19 cases have been in wave three. 

Reopening schools would impact cases, city says

The modelling also showed how reopening schools would affect case numbers in the city. 

If schools had reopened today, Richardson said, that could have resulted in 997 more cases. If schools reopened by May 31, she said, cases could increase by 422. 

The majority of cases wouldn't happen in schools, Richardson said, but would be a result of the increased mobility and points of contact between people in communities. 

Reopening schools, Richardson said, would also impact hospitalizations — an increase of 13 if schools reopened on May 31 — and would have a "very small impact" on the number of deaths. 

Richardson said public health is working with school boards to have a vaccination plan in place for students aged 12 to 17 by Thursday. The ideal time will be to have the first dose received in June and the second in August. 

Average of 114 new cases per day 

There are 962 people with COVID-19 in Hamilton right now. Hughes said about 75 per cent of cases being reported to public health are variants of the virus. 

There have been 374 people who have died, and just over 91 per cent of people who had COVID-19 have recovered. 

The city is averaging 114 new cases per day, which is slightly higher than the number reported on Sunday but far below the peak of wave three, which Hughes said hovered around 170 to 180 cases per day. 

38 active outbreaks in Hamilton

The number of outbreaks has stayed high, Hughes said, including 131 in the pre-peak of wave three and 108 during the peak. Around 37 per cent of those were in workplaces, with the largest proportion being in the warehousing, distribution, manufacturing and construction sector. 

The number of cases linked to outbreaks has also been rising during the peak, Hughes said. 

There is a new outbreak at Hamilton Downtown Family YMCA Men's residence with one person testing positive. 

The outbreak at Wellington Place apartments — located at 125 Wellington St. N and 50 Cathart St. — has increased to 42 cases. 

The following outbreaks have been declared as over:

• Rygiel Supports for Community Living south mountain location with three total cases.
• Medallion Corporation Office at 47 Bold Street with two cases.
• Tim Hortons at 2804 King St. E with three cases. 

Hughes said the number of people hospitalized has remained high. There were 303 people hospitalized in pre-peak period and 258 in the peak period. 

Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) is currently treating 75 people with COVID-19 with 35 in the ICU, and St. Joseph's Healthcare Hamilton is treating 36 COVID-19 patients.

The overall adult acute medicine and surgical hospital occupancy/funded acute beds for HHS is at 92 per cent and St. Joe's is at 72 per cent. 

As of Monday, there were 246,822 doses of the vaccine administered in Hamilton. 

Brant

Brant reported 26 new cases, bringing its total overall cases to 3,071. There are 141 active cases and 2,910 are resolved.

Twenty people have died, and five people are in hospital with the virus.

There have been 68,448 doses of the vaccine administered. 

Haldimand-Norfolk

The counties of Haldimand and Norfolk have reported a combined 2,553 cases throughout the pandemic. There are 143 active cases, and 2,364 people that have recovered. 

Forty-one deaths are considered COVID-related.  

There have been 48,102 doses of the vaccine administered.

Niagara

Niagara reported 42 new cases of the virus for a total of 15,243 cases seen through the pandemic. Of those, 1,336 are active and 13,507 are resolved. 

Four hundred people in the region have died. 

There have been 227,637 doses of the vaccine administered to Niagara residents. 

Halton

Halton reported 76 new cases of COVID-19, with 18 of those being in Burlington. The region has reported 16,880 cases during the pandemic. 

There are 593 active cases and 16,067 people who recovered. There have been 220 people who died. 

There have been 261,150 doses of the vaccine administered.

The region says it won't be opening up the age range for eligibility on Tuesday alongside the province. It will keep to its plans from last week to open appointments to residents aged 18 and over on Wednesday. 

Six Nations

Six Nations of the Grand River has one active case. There have been 525 cases overall and 513 are resolved. Eleven people have died. 

There have been 18 B117 cases and 40 more cases that screened positive as a variant of concern. 

Six Nations is in alert level black of its colour-coded framework.